WARNING: Many people believe once they set up a Revocable Living Trust and transfer assets into the Trust, those assets are protected from lawsuits against them. This is absolutely not true.
While Trusts commonly provide asset protection for beneficiaries, few Trusts protect assets owned by the person who created the Trust from their own creditors and lawsuits.
No Immediate Asset Protection? Why Should You Create a Revocable Living Trust?
Fully funded Revocable Trusts are dynamite tools. Here’s why:
- You can protect assets passing to your spouse and children. Yes, you can provide protections for loved ones that they can’t yet for themselves.
- Your Trust includes an incapacity plan, avoiding court interference, maintaining your control, and saving your loved ones time, money, and stress.
- Your Trust allows your assets to avoid probate, minimizing the time, stress, and cost of settling your final affairs.
- By avoiding the public probate court process, your Trust keeps all details about who is getting what, a private family matter.
What Can You Do to Protect Your Assets?
Comprehensive estate planning has a solid foundation of insurance, including homeowners/renters, umbrella, auto, business, life insurances, disability, and the like. Business entities such as the Limited Liability Company are commonly used for asset protection and Domestic Asset Protection Trusts are sometimes used as well.
Your Revocable Living Trust creates a powerful tool for your family and can be drafted to provide asset protection for your loved ones. To protect yourself, use insurance, business entities, and, perhaps, a Domestic Asset Protection Trust.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Zach Wiegand is a Burnsville estate planning attorney and the owner of Gold Leaf Estate Planning, LLC. Gold Leaf Estate Planning is an estate planning law firm that handles probate and trust administration in Minnesota. We serve the Twin Cities metropolitan area with a focus on estate planning for clients in Burnsville, Eagan, Savage, Prior Lake, Lakeville, Apple Valley, Eden Prairie and the South Metro. The firm also handles probate in Dakota County, Washington County, Scott County, Hennepin County, and Ramsey County. Zach was named a Minnesota Super Lawyer – Rising Star for both 2017 & 2018 and he is a member of WealthCounsel – a national organization of estate planning attorneys dedicated to practice excellence. You can contact Zach via e-mail at zach@goldleafestateplanning.com or by calling (952) 658-6503. Gold Leaf Estate Planning is located in Burnsville at 3000 County Road 42 W., Suite 310, Burnsville, MN 55337.
